The November election left the Franklin County Republican Party excited for the future, and now it is turning its focus to the 2017 township elections.
“I thought it (the 2016 election outcome) was great," James Kerley, chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party, told South East Illinois News. "It was outstanding. Our district won a senator and a state representative, which we haven't had in 30-plus years, so that's great.”
Republican Dave Severin defeated Democratic incumbent state Rep. John Bradley (D-Marion) for state representative for House District 117, and Dale Fowler won the state senate seat for the 59th district, defeating Democratic incumbent state Sen. Gary Forby (D-Benton).
Kerley said he believes the election of Severin and Fowler may help Franklin County, but is cautiously optimistic, saying it will probably continue to be difficult to make changes as long as House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) is in power.
Madigan has been speaker since 1983, except for 1995-1997, when Republicans won control of the state Senate and House.
“I'm just hoping the General Assembly gets their heads together and gets us a budget passed that will make things a whole lot better for everybody,” Kerley said.
Democrats and Republicans have been at odds over what should be included in the budget. The result is Illinois has been without a budget since 2015, although measures have been put in place to fund certain portions of the state's responsibilities, which include allowing schools to keep their doors open.
The lack of a budget causes issues throughout the state, but in most cases, it doesn't cause direct problems for local municipalities, Kerley said. When Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner took office in 2015, he used state motor fuel money, which townships use for roads, to help fill the $30 million hole in the budget left by the previous administration, Kerley said, but that money is again going to local governments. State motor fuel money is used to maintain roads and is also used as a match for additional funding from county, state and federal agencies to build roads.
The plan moving into 2017 is to focus on township elections, Kerley said.
“We had caucuses last week; all the candidates who are going to run have been appointed in all of the townships,” Kerley said.
Locally, it can be difficult to find candidates to run for municipal positions because they don't pay much, and they come with a lot of headaches, he said. There's very little competition, and many times, candidates run unopposed. Kerley said that in his district, there are three trustees running, as well as Kerley, who is unopposed. There is one Democrat running for the trustee position and a township clerk, he said.
Although the national election stands to change the direction of the federal government, Kerley said he didn't believe it would have an impact on who chooses to run in local races.
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